Too Far Away

Chapter Nineteen: Before I Go, I'll Leave You With This Poem

The sound of her own heartbeat was all that Song Lee could hear as she ran as fast as she could through the Upper Ring of Ba Sing Se. Zuko had stayed behind. Why? Who would that help? Princess Azula would never play fair, and now Song Lee would have to rescue him. But where would they put him? What would she have to save him from?

She stopped abruptly, turned back. Iroh had been running next to her, and he stumbled forward a few stops, unprepared for her to stop. "What are you doing?" he asked around his heaving breaths. "We need to run."

"He won't defeat Princess Azula."

"No, he won't, and especially not with the Dai Li behind her. She will not fight fairly."

"We need to go back, then," said Song Lee, who started hyperventilating for a reason far different than the exercise that was at fault for her already shallow breathing. "We need to help him. Uncle—"

"We need to get help," said Iroh, placing his heavy hands on her shoulders. She caught her breath and forced herself to blink tears away. The time for tears had passed. "Song Lee, we both know that the Avatar is somewhere in this city. We must get him to help us."

"But why would he?"

"He is not the villain that my nephew makes him out to be."

Still Song Lee hesitated. She looked back in the direction of the palace. There were so many unknowns, so many rapidly changing variables. Zuko was in trouble, and she wanted nothing more than to be going after him at that very moment.

But she trusted Iroh.

"Okay," she said, turning back to the direction in which they had been running. "I know how to find him. Follow me."

"You've got company," said the Dai Li agent. Not to Zuko, but to someone already in the caves that the agent had just revealed.

The Dai Li agent threw Zuko forward, and he stumbled and fell to the ground.

"Zuko!" he heard a jarring, too-familiar voice say, and he looked up at Katara, heart dropping.

Song Lee's elaborate plan for finding the Avatar hadn't been so elaborate after all—she'd simply had to find and capture a Dai Li agent, who then told her exactly where to go. Utilizing her advantage was always enjoyable.

"So," said Iroh. "This should be easy."

"I've heard you say that before. You weren't correct."

"Your confidence is overwhelming. Drop him there, please."

Song Lee let the Dai Li agent she had caught drop to the side of the porch, and Iroh knocked on the door.

The door slid open almost immediately. Song Lee perked up. "Toph!" she said.

"Glad to see you're okay," said Toph, who had been the one to open the door. "Are you here for a rematch?"

Behind her, the Avatar and the boomerang boy obviously recognized Iroh, and they made funny sounds in what she assumed was shock. She recognized them from their brief time fighting Princess Azula, right before she had poisoned Song Lee.

The Avatar pointed at Iroh. "You guys know each other!" he said to Toph.

"I met him in the woods once and knocked him down," said Toph. "This is Song. She almost knocked me down. Then they gave me tea and very good advice."

"That is how he handles most situations," said Song Lee. "He opened a tea shop right here in the Upper Ring."

"May we come in?" Iroh asked Toph.